First image of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man!

Columbia Pictures releases the first image of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. (Photo Credit: John Schwartzman)

So much for recycling Tobey Maguire’s old Spidey outfit. Columbia Pictures just released the first image of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man for the 2012 big-screen reboot and it’s a pic of a beat-up, quasi-traditional Web-Slinger. (Click the image for a bigger view.)

I almost want to call this Spidey 2.0 costume a beta release, what with how its classic Spider-Man web pattern looks unfinished on back of the gloved hands and just under the spider chest emblem as if Peter Parker couldn’t wait to give the duds a test swing. Besides, it’s tough to make a final call on this somewhat-retooled look without Garfield’s mug behind the bright white bug-eyed lenses and webbed mask.

Still, I do like how the webs we do get stand out pretty well without the raised treatment they got in the last big-screen franchise. And the hodgepodge, stitched-together look of the red and blue pieces favors a much more believable garment from a teenage science nerd who probably never picked up a sewing needle than the Project Runway-ready garb Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker cranked out.

Hey, it could be worse. We could have Spider-Nipples.

Garfield and no doubt the rest of his Spidey costume crawls into theaters July 3, 2012.